A recent federal designation of areas in St. Mary’s and Calvert Counties as an “urban area” could undermine federal roads funding for the area, jeopardizing as much as $1 million in funding.
From coverage in the Southern Maryland Newspapers online site:
The planning organizations are based on population clusters, called an Urbanized Area, and are automatically made by the U.S. Census Bureau. Once an area is labeled an Urbanized Area it is required to have a Metropolitan Planning Organization, and it falls under federal rules to continue to qualify for federal transportation money.
“That urbanized area doesn’t fit either county,” said St. Mary’s County Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R). The new Urbanized Area includes Lexington Park, California, Patuxent River Naval Air Station and other pieces of St. Mary’s County, as well as the Chesapeake Ranch Estates neighborhood in Calvert County. More than 50,000 people live in this area, according to the 2010 census.
